Review: Nightshade (The Poison Diaries, #2) by Maryrose Wood

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

Sixteen-year-old Jessamine Luxton is heartbroken. Her true love, Weed, the strange but intriguing young man who came into her life so suddenly, has disappeared. How could he have left her with no farewell, and no word since?

Jessamine may not know why Weed vanished, but she does suspect that her own father, Thomas, may have had something to do with it. Thomas, who was so obsessed with Weed’s secret knowledge of dangerous plants that he would do anything to learn it. This suspicion—and her experiences with poisons—has changed her. She is no longer innocent, and now she has her own intimate knowledge of the power of the plants.

So when Jessamine learns that Weed is alive, she will do whatever it takes to be reunited with him.

She is, after all, her father’s daughter....

Review:

After reading last year's The Poison Diaries, the first addition in this series, I had been eagerly anticipating Nightshade, the newest addition. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next to Jessamine and Weed. Would Jessamine finally be able to escape the grip of her controlling father? Would Weed be able to reunite with Jessamine before it was too late? Only Nightshade would let me know, so as soon as I received the book in the mail, I quickly gobbled it up. While my questions were indeed answered, I didn't find this addition to be nearly as good as the first one sadly enough.

Nightshade picks up shortly after The Poison Diaries ended. Jessamine is missing Weed as well as wondering what caused his sudden and rash disappearance. Jessamine's father Thomas argues that it was all Weed's decision to leave, but Jessamine knows there's more to the story, and this time she's not going to let her father's word be the final ruling. However, on the search for the truth, Jessamine makes allies with some surprising and dangerous plants, plants that are to change her for the worst. What will happen to Jessamine? Will Weed be able to save her before it's too late? Only time and more pages can tell in this fast paced addition!

With Nightshade came some surprising developments. One of the biggest, though, was Jessamine's transformation from a quiet, sweet girl into a daring and dauntless murderess. It was a surprising twist from the previous book, and while I love fierce characters, there's was something just off about this transformation. I never found it to be that believable nor did I really see a point to it in the long run. Yes, it created plenty of tension in this one. But is really going to do much in the long run? I'm not really sure... I did like the development with Weed's character though. It was also a treat to see the POV change from Jessamine's to his, because not only did he bring some freshness to the story, but it was also fun yet bittersweet to see his journey to rescue Jessamine from the danger of the dark plants.

The plot in this one was interesting, yet it never really managed to capture my attention fully. The whole plot line with Jessamine tended to get on my nerves in more ways than one, because really how naive can one girl be? Plus, the whole thing with the Dark Prince as well as her promiscuous adventures in this one were just a bit too much, in my opinion. I did enjoy the ending, though. It was dramatic and provided some conclusion, but I'm still unsure for the most part on how everything is going to end.

In all, Nightshade didn't end up being my favorite addition to The Poisson Diaries series, sadly enough, and while I'm curious to see what's going to occur in the next book, I don't think it's going to be a book I'm going to run out in get...

However, I still recommend this one those of you who enjoyed the first one...hopefully you'll be able to enjoy it more than I did.

Grade: C

Source: Publisher- thanks HarperTeen!